Estwing Sportsman's Axe E14A

The Estwing Sportsman’s Axe E14A is a small hatchet for kindling and camp chores, with the head and the handle forged as a single piece of steel and a leather grip on the end.

Most garages have an old hatchet whose head has started to wobble, and one relative who says a wrap of tape will hold it. The E14A has no head to wobble. There is no joint between head and handle for the tape to cover, only steel and the leather grip.

The 12-inch one, with the leather grip

The Sportsman’s Axe comes in more than one size and grip, so check which one you are reading about. This page is about the E14A. Estwing lists it at 12.5 inches overall, with a 2-3/4-inch cutting edge, a leather grip and a black nylon sheath, and makes it in the USA. The 14-inch Sportsman’s Axe is the E24A, and the rubber-grip Sportsman’s models are different again.

It is sold as the 12-inch model. Estwing’s figure is 12.5. The YouTube reviewer PEAK TRAIL measured one at 13 inches overall, with a 10-inch handle. Three numbers for one hatchet, and none of them is 14.

Estwing does not publish a weight for it.

On the Amazon page behind our button, pick the 12-inch E14A before you order. The same page sells the 14-inch size too, and one line there lists a 4-inch edge; Estwing’s own figure is 2-3/4 inches.

Owners talk in years

One owner on r/Bushcraft has used theirs as a workhorse for small tasks for about 15 years. Another, on r/knives, had had theirs for 20 years back in 2012. Neither says which size or grip, so read their years as the Sportsman’s line, not as proof for the E14A.

The case for this hatchet is short: nothing to loosen, nothing to replace.

What the steel handle costs your hands

The trade for that handle arrives in your hands. Axe Adviser, reviewing the 12-inch Sportsman’s Axe, found more vibration than with wooden or composite handles, and found the lacquered leather grip slippery without gloves.

One commenter who had heard the vibration complaint was not sure how many hours a day you would have to chop to notice it. A bundle of campground firewood is not hours a day.

So keep a pair of work gloves in the same bag as the hatchet. Gloves take care of the slippery part. The vibration comes with the steel.

A chopper with a thin blade

PEAK TRAIL called the 12-inch an alright chopper. Splitting is where the Sportsman’s threads turn less kind. A commenter in one of them says splitting is the only thing these hatchets are not great at, because of their thin profile, and the 15-year owner says theirs gets stuck when splitting hard wood. For anyone splitting a lot of wood, Axe Adviser’s answer is a maul or a splitting axe.

Axe Adviser also does not recommend it for carving or fine work.

It is a hatchet for the kindling bundle and the small camp jobs. The woodpile still belongs to the maul.

The day it arrives

Not every new one leaves the factory ground evenly. A buyer of a brand-new 12-inch Sportsman’s Axe posted on r/Axecraft that one cheek was nearly flat to the edge and the other curved much more. One reply called that fine for a camp axe and easier to sharpen; another said the person who ground it at the factory got it wrong, and that a file can fix it.

Open the box at the kitchen table and look along both sides of the edge before the hatchet goes into the camp bin.

Bare steel needs a wipe

GearJunkie points out that the Sportsman’s Axe has no coating on its steel head and handle, and that you need to keep it clean so it does not corrode. Treat it like the good kitchen knife: wiped clean before it goes back in its sheath.

With kids around the fire ring, the edge goes back in that sheath whenever the hatchet is not in someone’s hand.

Straight from the threads

Who should pick something else

If you split a lot of firewood, this is the wrong tool. Leave that job to the maul.

If you came for the bigger 14-inch Sportsman’s Axe, that is the E24A, and this page does not cover it.

If you want to carve, look at the Gränsfors Bruk Wildlife Hatchet 415 in our camping hatchet guide, which an owner quoted there uses for small rough carving. If you would rather have a handle that is not steel, the Fiskars Ultra Universal Hatchet U14 has a composite one. If chopping matters more to you than a short package, the Hults Bruk Hultån Hatchet is the one GearAssistant would probably choose for chopping.

Side by side with three other hatchets

This page has no comparison table; our camping hatchet guide has it. That table puts the E14A beside three other small hatchets, with length, weight, cutting edge and sheath in rows, each figure with the name of whoever published it.

Somewhere a relative is still wrapping tape around an old hatchet head. This one gives the tape nothing to hold.

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